There is way more to me than just a life with Cystic Fibrosis, but its a huge part of my life, it affects everything i can do! Somedays i hate CF others i just get on with it! This is my life, my story, the way i deal with CF and the way it affects me! So read with an open mind, don't judge me or feel sorry for me! i'm stronger than you think and i'll keep fighting till the very end!!

Saturday, 19 March 2011

"Joey The Kangaroo"

Well today i was feeling a little bit low, considering it's been my week off work i've been way more busy that normal. Think today paired with getting up early to take my nan to the doctors, my little body is telling me i need a rest. After the doctors i went for some tlc, Steve's mum is a nail technician, when I first got with Steve i had the worst nails ever, i had bitten them for years, i even remember when i started biting them, it was assembly is about year 3, biting my nails really helped to pass the time whilst Mr Darlington droned on and on about a load of rubbish. So i didn't have any nails left at all, but once Steve's mum had done them once with extensions i was well untruely hooked on having pretty nails. So for last 4 and half years, every two weeks I go on a friday morning for my nails with my now mother in law!! lol, there was a reason I married Steve you see!! Pretty Nails! xx My nails are now all my own and i love them, i try my best to look after them, Pat does tell me off when i've not looked after them and they're chipped or not got any gel left on but occassionally i surprise her. Even though my nails are all grown now i still have the Gel overlay, one because they look so pretty and two my health means that sometimes when i'm unwell my nails become very weak and break alot. This a photo of the nails I had for my wedding!! So pretty!! This is how i have them all time, i change the colours though, to match outfits, handbagsm coats and things, what ever my craze is at the time really, you should know by now i'm little miss match it!!

So I guess you wondering why i called this blog, "Joey the Kangaroo" and so far i've gone on about my pretty nails. Well like i said i was feel a little low today, CF belly ache, lack of food and in the rush this morning i hadn't taken my steroids first thing, so i was still waiting for them to kick in. I tend to rely alot on my daily dose of steroids for that boast to get me through the day. It's one drug as a child I really didn't take properly, but now I pretty much rely on and have to take every morning around 10 or 11ish to get me through my day. They also help give me an appetite, make sure i eat my main meal at night. When i'm not well and my dose in increased I proper get the munchies, i have to carry chocolate bars and crisps in my bag for mid afternoon snacks and i struggle to get through my four hour shift at work because i'm thinking about food. Normally me and the thought of food just don't even live on the same planet. I don't generally get hungry, i have to force breaky down me each day, quite often i got to work and go till tea time just having had a couple of biscuits in my tea.

Today when i got home from nails, i was feeling quite weak, so i came in, picked up the post and headed straight for the fridge for the bacon, turned the grill on and got the tinned tomatoes out. Put the toast in the toaster ready and then whilst bacon was cooking i opened my post. I wasn't expecting a parcel, i have been good and even though la senza and new look have been emailing me all week with there 50% offers and free delivery i had resisted, which if you know me was very difficult. lol. But surprising the parcel was for me!! With a lovely little note inside sayin

"I saw this and thought of you"

So this kinda explains the "Joey the Kangaroo"!! This started at school really, I used to have this hoodie coat with a zip in the post, wouldn't be seen dead in it now, but was so cool at the time!! lol x Everyday my mum would send me to school with chocolate and sweets to eat a break time, now it seems daft that i didn't sell them for a profit, i was obviously not born a sales woman about to take over the world with a business enterprise! In fact u can see why i'm not into charity work, cuz i always gave my goodies away for free! Occassionally i'd even swap them for some of Ashley's bran flakes!! It was like i was allergic to any food with calories in!! lol. Actually I blame my mum for that too, as a young child i was sent to infants school was mars bars and forced to eat them buy the dinner ladies and a horrible little tupperware beaker full of orange juice with maxijul in it, it was horrible, it was sticky and always leaked too. I was never allowed to go out to play till i had drunk it, most day's i'd make it outside just as the bell rang to come back in! I'm sure the exercise would be just as good for me, i so wasn't quick enough to argue that case as a child. I was always last to leave the dinning room too, my best friend Larah's mum was a dinner lady and so was her mum's best friend so between Pat and Val there was always someone watching over me to make sure i'd eaten all my dinner, they just didn't understand I don't like carrots!! lol

So back to today, i love been called Joey by my family and friends. When I met the lovely Naomi at university she was on the same course as my friend Amelie, who i'd know from when I was 11 at high school, not really liked till i was 15, she cried alot and i always used to think, Christ god help her if she had CF, she cries at like everything. HT lessons though in Year 10/11 and we actually became quite good friends, we went to college together and then to university in Chester. Also our friend Melanie too, she was part of our group from school, who went to college and then uni. So I met Naomi, she was tall, blonde, big boobs and holding a pint, next to me, small, tiny boobs and couldn't even get my little hands around a pint! Straight away i knew we'd be great friends. lol. One of first nights out together was Halloween, christ we all look different from then!! Thank god, in my case though! Contacts and dark hair, made a hell of difference to little Joey!!

Naomi or Gnome as i always called her, always called me Joey, we had a module to together in the second semester of first year, i managed to sort it to hire her as my note taker!! Yes i had a note taker at uni. It's kind of a funny story, I had an assesment before i started uni, my mission was to try get a free laptop so as when i was in hospital or ill i could still do my work!! Mission was successful, but in the test i was asked to draw a tree!! Which i drew like, Tree 1, which he then said, have you ever looked out the window at a tree and thought it looks like a trunk with a green cloud on top of it!! He then drew a tree similar to Tree 2. He then explained how I had drawn a very simple tree the kind that was exceptable what I was at infants school, but it was a good job i wasn't doing art as a degree, can u believe the cheek!! By the way how hard is it to draw on paint these days!! lol hense the really lame drawing, but hey they were needed to explain my point!! lol.

He then asked to list a 5 essential items i would need if i was even stranded on a desert island.
Of course the girl that can't live with out tea, thought i was been clever and listed,

TEA BAGS, MILK, KETTLE, POT NOODLES, MOBILE PHONE!!

Well u can imagine his reaction to that, to make a cup of tea or a pot noodle, i needed water. I also needed power for my kettle. My milk would go off, because of the heat and my mobile i would have no battery.

Again, Simple minded, but hey i got my a laptop, a printer, £350 a year to pay for expenses for my printer, paper, cartridges etc. I also got a note taker, who was paid £9 quid a hour and who went every lecture with me, took all my notes, so all i had to do was sit and twiddle with my pen. If i was hungover and couldnt get to my lecture, it was ok, my note taker went! It was brilliant. To be fair i do think i have a problem, you know when lecture saying something, i'd be trying to write it down but then i'd be thinking what i was writing and end up not hearing the next bit to write down. It was something i noticed about myself at school as teachers always wrote everything on the board anyway for you to copy. The note taker was great, brilliant for when i was in hospital, didnt need to rely on friends, but when i was in this lecture with Gnomie i realised she could be paid for going to her own lectures, so it was win win!! Talk about buying your friends hey.

While we were in the boring lecture, i can't even remember the subject, i used to sit and write letters to Gnomie. I'd start them Dear Gnome and draw a picture of a Garden Gnome, i'd write a load of gobbledy gook and then i'd sign it love Joey the Kangaroo!! xxx Even since then, every birthday, christmas card or letter has been written from me to the Gnome in this way. When we lived together in second and third year, quite off as her Brocoli pasta was boiling over on the stove, i'd scream up the stairs "Garden" xx It just kinda stuck and she's always called me Joey, sometimes with a Joey the Kangaroo!! So now you probably understand in a very round about way why this DVD came in the post from a very lovely friend today and really made a girl smile.

2 comments:

I wrote about gnomie's horrible broccoli pasta boiling over on the stove x lol. Tea milk roll and alot of alcohol was the reason I had my peg removed at uni, n then u used to drink my fortsip drinks for me, cuz they make me gag x lol x